Monday, April 22, 2013

If you were one of the 150,000 people who participated
in CicLAvia “To the Sea” yesterday, we don’t need to tell you what a great event it was, drawing people from all over Southern California. For the
uninitiated, CicLAvia closes streets to cars and makes them safe for people to
walk, skate, play and ride a bike. For yesterday’s event, 15 miles of streets,
stretching from Downtown LA to Venice Beach, were closed to traffic.

Although many Caltrans staff have participated individually in past CicLAvias, for Sunday’s event, we got a group together. Here’s the
Caltrans team in front of the District 7 Headquarters on Main Street:

And here’s Caltrans District 7 Director Mike Miles at the
kick-off press conference with Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa:

Numerous projects now in construction have bike-friendly
elements, such as the US 101 widening project and the Gerald Desmond Bridge
replacement project, both of which will have bike paths.

We also work with cities and counties to provide
funding for bike projects through the Department’s Bicycle Transportation
Account (BTA). For 2013/2013, Caltrans has approved $11.9 million in funding
for BTA projects.

But back to CicLAvia. The next one is June 23 and will
run mostly on Wilshire from Downtown LA to Fairfax. It’s a great way
to see the city up close and personal and the people who live in it, so get it on your calendar now. We'll see you there!